white vs blue light and how much red is to much?

LEGACYLINE · Oct 7, 2018

Ok so im still confused on this whole lighting deal. I've been reading Dana riddles articles stating red light can cause bleaching in corals but over the past 2 months since switching to all blue plus and actinic lighting (t5)my alkalinity and calcium have not been used up hardly any despite having good par with blue plus bulbs I have plenty of acros to use it up this leads me to believe that corals defiantly use the white/ red spectrum to grow more ? I have has several people recommend 6500k to have faster growth but dosent that have a ton of red in it ?im confused on this whole deal and after reading Dana article I switch to all blue to see any difference with no red white spectrum although I have a lot of green peaks with the blue plus but growth has slowed down a lot if any or do the corals just need more time to adjust ?

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 8, 2018

There are no reef leds or t5 combinations that contain enough red to hurt coral.

Even a radon or Ai at full 1:1 ratio will grow coral in its native color.

The thing tat will hit it is too much intensity and too little.

Re read the red article. It was a specific test to see what would happen with red only Not to see if it’s bad In combination with the rest of the spectrum.

LEGACYLINE · Oct 9, 2018

Ok thanks for the info I was reading corals use the 420 460 nm spectrum the most for photosynthesis but 6500k spectrum grows coral faster so I'm a little confused on what spectrum is "best" if they grow better with more full spectrum light I know there is a lot of blue spectrum even in the 6500 k bulb but assume they would use the yellow green orange and red also maybe im overthinking it but would like to learn more

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 9, 2018

Best is opinion. Always always keep that in mind when Reefing. Lol.

It def gets confusing.

In short , the 56ook we use in Reefing has all the colors a coral needs. It has less of what alage needs however.
The 5600k I use in photography has all the colors coral needs and and alge too. Natural 5600 is a bit different still as it’s a basically even or full spectrum.
As you can make 5600k a number of ways.
Reef 56 has less orange and yellow as alge uses those , and coral does not.

He’s a good lighting primer.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lighting-spectra-photosynthesis-and-you.100170/#post-1108955